Investigation of Distress Tolerance Levels of University Students According to Different Variables

The main aim of this research was to reveal relationship between distress tolerance levels of university students according to different variables. The study sample consisted of 600 students in 2017-2018 academic years at Ataturk University in Erzurum, Turkey. In the study the "Distress Tolerance" Scale was conducted. It was developed by Simons et al. (2005) and its verification and validation in Turkish was conducted by Sargin et al (2012). SPSS 21 package program was used to analyze the data. In the analysis of data; frequency distribution was used in determination of demographic characteristics, the Independent Samples T test was used in examination of relationship between two independent variables and distress tolerance level, the one way ANOVA analysis test was used in examination of relationship between more than two variables and the distress tolerance levels. All these tests were analyzed in SPSS 21 package program and the significance was evaluated at p <0.05 level. According to the findings, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the students' distress tolerance levels and sports activity. It was observed that the students who were doing sports activities have higher distress tolerance level than those were not doing sportive activities. No significant difference was found between the distress tolerance level and gender, grade level and family structure. As a result of the fact that sports activities have a positive effect on the distress tolerance level, it is recommended that students be given opportunity to make different sports activities, by raising their awareness about the sports activity in order to increase the distress tolerance in learning process or the course of life However, it is also recommended to carry out studies to identify different variables that may have an impact on distress tolerance.